Ice Melters - How Salt Granules Work

The most familiar ice melter is rock salt because it is used to make our highway safe during winter storms. Many buyers know small about the many other ice melters that are used to make our sidewalks, driveways and parking lots safe. This narrative uses simple/non-technical language to account for how all these ice melters work.

All customary ice melters are formulations of four basic salts and/or fertilizers. In addition, other ingredients are sometimes added to make the products stick, spread, pour good and/or more visible. The word salt is used to characterize a aggregate containing the basic element called "chloride". Rock salt is the aggregate Sodium Chloride mined plainly from under the ground. The four salts are:

1) Sodium Chloride -- The rock salt (natural sodium chloride) granules work by spirited heat. When these granules are spread on pavement containing water and/or ice, two things happen:

o The granules mix into solution with the water and/or ice.

o The granules absorb heat from the sun, car tires, crushing force, etc. Raising the climatic characteristic of the solution.

This rise in climatic characteristic of the solution causes ice to melt even though the outside air climatic characteristic is in the middle of +20F and the frozen point of water, 32F. Rock salt has a minimum effective climatic characteristic (Met) of +20F. This means that when the outside climatic characteristic is below +20F ice can still form under general application rates.

2) Calcium chloride -- The granules of this aggregate give off lots of heat when allowed to caress water/ice in difference to the rock salt that absorbed heat. Calcium chloride has a Met of -25F.

3) Magnesium chloride -- The granules of this aggregate also give off heat. However, it has a Met of only zero F. This is because the granules contain about 50% water and 50% magnesium chloride manufacture it only half as effective when mixed with water/ice. Because of the water content, the application rate must be significantly increased to get the same amount of melting compared to calcium chloride.

4) Potassium chloride -- The granules of this aggregate work similar to rock salt by spirited heat. Therefore, Potassium chloride is less effective than the previous two salts. Potassium chloride has a Met of +25F. Potassium chloride is also a commonly used as a fertilizer.

Now that it is known that the above four salts work by whether spirited heat or giving off heat, what determines the actual carrying out of ice melters? By varying the proportions of the above four salts in a product, the maker can adjust the many characteristics of ice melters such as Met's, melting speed, melting durations, and environment impact (vegetation, animal life, concrete, floor covering, etc.).

The carrying out of a specific ice melter is carefully by the noted salt in the ice melter because there is very small interaction in the middle of the separate salts when mixed. Adding a salt with a weaker characteristic, such as Met, weakens the resulting goods according to the proportions used in the product. The same is true for adding a small amount of a salt with a stronger characteristic. The resulting goods is only strengthened for the specific characteristic according to the proportions used in the product.

Finally, non-corrosive/non-salt additives such as urea and Cma can also play an leading role in how the granules of an ice melt goods work.

o Urea (a coarse form of nitrogen found in fertilizer) is sometimes mixed with the above salts but is not very effective as an ice melter. Too much urea can significantly weaken the products performance. While products with urea may appear to be friendlier to the environment, they can easily be worse for the environment because of the high rate of usage required to melt ice.

o Cma (calcium magnesium acetate) is a key ingredient added to many ice melters to growth melting speed and make it less corrosive. Pure Cma is no more corrosive than water. Cma is quite expensive. The Cma additive is biodegradable. This means that it decomposes to compounds regularly found in nature. Products with the Cma additive are often advertized as being friendlier to the environment.

Both urea and Cma are use at airports to clean runways and/or aircraft because they are lest corrosive than the salts.